Friends raft river for spring break

Plymouth's Matt Read among them.

Plymouth's Matt Read among them.

April 01, 2006

LOGANSPORT, Ind. (AP) -- Four Taylor University students, including one from Plymouth, are spending their spring break on a homemade raft making its way down the Wabash River at a leisurely pace. The 20-somethings began their journey Sunday in Wabash on a raft made of scrap lumber and eight 50-gallon drums. In their first three days, they had floated about 30 miles downstream to Logansport. By week's end, the friends had thought they could make it to Lafayette, but they were moving slower than expected. "We are going where the river takes us," rafter Brandon Wong told the Pharos-Tribune for a story Thursday. The rafters said they encountered many doubters among their friends and families as they planned their trip. They all agreed that retelling the story of their adventure was going to be part of the fun. "This is relaxing week," Plynmouth's Matt Read said. The group from the small private Christian college in the town of Upland, about midway between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, spent around $150 for food and supplies to build their raft, which took about 2 1/2 days to put together. They say it was a quest to do something different for spring break. "Everyone else will have the same stories," Wong said. The four friends said the raft suffered a good bit of abuse during their journey. "We've hit lots of rocks," said Andrew Dowdy, who was nearly thrown into the water in some rapids under a bridge. They had to navigate the river's rocky bottom, and a police officer in Peru told them he had gotten a report of a floating tent on fire. Whoever called police apparently saw their open cooking fire on the raft, where they packed pork, Ramen noodles, beef jerky and various canned foods. One night they had popcorn made over the fire. They anchored in the middle of the river once it became dark and slept in sleeping bags on the raft. They pulled out tarps to ride out the rain one night. "We stayed nice and dry," Brodie Sears said.